Data details workplace fatalities in Pa.

HARRISBURG — Fatal work injuries in Pennsylvania totaled 220 in 2007, an 8-percent decrease from the total of 240 recorded in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that the most frequent types of workplace fatalities in 2007 were highway crashes (64), homicides (32), falls to a lower level (29), and being struck by objects or equipment (22); these four types of events accounted for two-thirds of the workplace fatalities in the Commonwealth. Men accounted for 93 percent (204) of the work-related fatalities in the Commonwealth. Transportation incidents, which include highway, non-highway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail fatalities, accounted for two-fifths of these deaths. Contact with objects and equipment and falls each made up 18 percent of the fatal injuries to men, while assaults and violent acts accounted for 16 percent. Sixteen women were fatally injured on the job, with 11 of these deaths resulting from transportation incidents. Among the Commonwealth’s metropolitan areas, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. registered the highest number of work-related fatalities at 93, followed by Pittsburgh, at 26. More details are available at http://www.bls.gov/ro3/cfoipa.htm .